Tag Archives: Adam Driggs

Lawmakers are considering introducing legislation to repeal last year’s election reform bill, HB2305, which remains on hold because opponents gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the law this November.

When asked how his vote for Medicaid expansion could threaten his chances at another term in the Arizona Legislature, Senate Majority Leader John McComish points to an Arizona Capitol Times newspaper hanging in a frame behind his desk “The risk of defiance,” the headline reads. “What will GOP senators’ ‘no’ votes on immigration bills cost them?”

Long before lawmakers took a vote on Medicaid expansion, Republican precinct committeemen across the state issued a warning to GOP
legislators: If you vote for expansion, we will do everything we can to take you out in the next primary election.

Quiet about his thoughts on Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid proposal for most of the session, Senate Majority Leader John McComish emerged late as a key player in the push for AHCCCS expansion in the Senate.

The award for best legislative batting average for the session — the calculation of bills introduced versus bills signed into law — goes to Rep. David Livingston, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Peoria who has been vocally critical of the governor.

The Arizona Senate’s passage of a budget plan that includes Medicaid expansion on May 16 was a tremendous victory for Gov. Jan Brewer, as well as the lawmakers who stuck their necks out for the governor — most notably Senate Majority Leader John McComish, who sponsored the amendment that added expansion to the budget plan.

A member of the coalition of Senate Republicans who broke away from the majority party and voted for Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion proposal is contemplating whether to run for office in 2014.

Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa, said that while he intends to run at this point, the decision is one he must still mull over in the coming year – and any reservations he has to running have nothing to do with his vote on Medicaid.